Chapter 2

Mr. Merc was already on his feet, heading to the shields room to look out a porthole. a few people followed, but others stayed behind. Gluss was completely oblivious in his soundproof chamber.

Eclipse pounded on the chamber but there was still no reaction. Dewblade then ran up and crashed into the tank. Gluss opened one of the holes and popped out.

"What's going on that you gotta wake me up?" Asked gluss, Slowly pouring onto the floor, before forming back into his normal shape.

"Attention everyone!" Said the captin over the speakers. "The base was being attacked, and we currently don't have very good weapons installed on the ship. Were about to make a Jump, so get ready."

Dewblade hissed under his breath, "You could have spent a penny to get weapons way better."

Senka smiled, her tail moved from her muzzle and flicked around excitedly, she was eager to get a chance at fighting. She half hoped they couldn't get away quickly enough, so she could prove that they couldn't treat her like some peasant anymore.

Merc came back in. "Pirates, 2 ships. one looks automated. the second, i'm not sure."

A large blast rocked the ship. The captain's voice came through the speakers again. "They hit our engine. i can't jump."

"What weapons do we have?" asked Geranno, who had flipped his laptop over and was fiddling with the bottom. He pulled something out of it as dewblade responded.

"Two minor blasters with a maximum range of ten feet which isn't enough to kill if you a had dozens of them, a rusting knife, three or four blazeblades that are almost out of power, and whatever you might be carrying," He replied as he looked at the weapons Merc and Senka were carrying.

Geranno Pulled out a Human-sized droid, and inserted the microchip form his computer into it. 

"PTRD-6, activate." he said. The droid sprung to life. "We have a situation." he said. "Defend mode. No current hostilities." the droid saluted him. It had a cannon for its arm. the other hand carried a currently de-activated Blazeblade.

"Petie here can defend this room for us" Claimed Geranno. "But we need guns in case anyone boards the ship."

The intercom butt in yet again. "Someone's teleported on the ship, into the mess hall. looks like 3 beings, a human and 2 Kuroks."

"Eclipse!" Said Merc. "What’s a battle plan?" the door started being cut into by an orange blazeblade.

Eclipse started to panic as he replied, "I-I don't exactly know. I've never been tested in real life, and always thought I'd have more time to think it through!"

Senka sighed and grabbed the two knives from her ankles and put them in her left paw. With her right, she grabbed Eclipse by the shirt and held him in the air, "There's no time for your primitive thinking!"

She then launched herself through the hole the attackers had just finished carving. She knocked the weapons out of the hands of the two weakest and slammed them into the wall, knocking them unconscious. The last human was obviously the leader, and the two Kuroks were the ones now doing the fighting for it.

She hated the look of those bug-like fiends.

Mr. Merc jumped out after her, holding a 60 rounds-per-minute blaster. He started aiming for One of the bugs, Quickly mowing it down.

"Petie" Rushed out after them, surveying the area and coming up with the best plan of action in less than a millisecond. He charged up a shot out of his arm, firing a big shot at the human, who was smaller than the

Kuroks and thus dodged out of the way. the shot exploded on the wall behind him, opening a hole in the wall, which led into the airlock in the back. Thankfully, not open.

Despite The bugs being bigger than humans, they were considerably smaller than Minashtans, and she managed to kill one, and Dewblade helped a little by pinning the other one down.

Senka then raced over to the human and lightly hit it with her forepaws, just enough to knock it down. She picked it up off the ground by the shoulders.

"Put me down, you glorified stuffed dog!" he said, trying to wiggle free.

Senka growled and slammed him against the wall before replying, "If you want to make it out of here with your skin on your face, you had better address me better."

She removed her right paw and scratched his chest slightly, leaving long scarlet streaks on his clothing.

"I'd rather die than be humiliated by returning, defeated." he said, spitting in her face. He missed though.

"The rebels will be-" he stopped short. "I mean-" he stopped again.

Senka ignored his last comment and said, "I never said I'd be so merciful as to grant you death."

She scratched him harder, being careful to avoid fatal parts of the human's complicated body. She grinned as she saw the blood soaking his clothes and turning them completely red.

"Rebels?" Asked Geranno, peeking his head through the hole in the door. "This explains why they were attacking a fully-armed IPK Base."

"All I know, is this stupid race is going to be the downfall of the entire galaxy!" Senka growled

Merc Swiveled around.

"Well hey, we're the ones that stopped the fighting, weren't we? None of the species could get along." He Said. "Though i do agree, Humans can be quite... Stupid sometimes.

Without turning her head, Senka replied, "Well, unless you think your a fish or something, I suggest you refrain from saying that. Betraying your race...citizens have been killed on my planet for less."

"Hah! Most of 'our race', have already figured it out." Said merc. He his the gun on his person again and went to speak with eclipse.

Eclipse saw the mercenary come towards him and instantly started panicking again. He was terrified that Merc was going to take out one of those sharp knives and punish him for not being ready. He winced as he came nearer.

"I Thought you were Hired to be Ready, and for your quick thinking. Me and Wolfie over there Had to deal with them, we rushed in with no battle plan. Damage was done to the ship, and if we hadn't defeated them, more lives than just Mine and Senka's would have been in danger." Merc Turned around and walked into the weapons bay. "I just want you to think about that."

Eclipse was amazed, the devil-hearted mercenary was a bit more understanding than he would have hoped. Eclipse considered himself lucky to have escaped with his skin. But he was definitely going to have to go over battle tactics more and may need a simulation. 

Geranno Took the microchip out of PT, and stored him by the bed again.

Jed walked in through the shield room entrance. "We hardly escaped that. is everyone OK?"

Sierra looked around and noticed that there weren't any injuries severe enough to need tending, and relaxed a little.

"Mind if we cut the chit-chat and figure out something to do with this one," Senka said angrily, shoving the man against the wall once more and still holding him above the ground.

"I'd rather not keep him aboard." said jed.

Senka smiled and said, "We can teleport him to the center of the sun, the middle of empty space, on a desolate, unforgiving planet, or I could slowly shred him to bits. I'll give you that choice. Just this once."

"Why don't we launch him out the airlock?" said jed. "it uses fewer resources than teleporting."

"A hole got blown in the airlock wall." said Geranno.

"Do I not get a say in this?" The man asked politely.

"No, you just sit back and let us kill you slowly and painfully," Senka replied.

"I have an idea." said gluss. "Sierra, do you happen to have an empty needle?"

Sierra laughed a little, "Of course I do!" She pulled one out of a bag that everyone just now noticed was hanging around her shoulder.

Gluss took it and went to the kitchen, returning with a syringe full of an orangey-red liquid.

He injected it into the man, right at his heart.

The man immediately started yelling in pain.

"Old-fashioned jalapeno juice." he said. "There's a real kick to it when its in food, and, if you get enough in the bloodstream, its lethal." he handed the syringe back to sierra. "wash that thoroughly. There’s not enough left in it to kill, but it will definitely smart for a while if you use it to medicine anyone."

Senka dropped him to the floor and he continued to scream and writhe in pain for several minutes. 

"When does it begin to take affect?" Dewblade asked, noticing Sierra was beginning to cry at seeing someone in pain.

"Well it isn't instantaneous, but it is quick." Replied gluss.

The man struggled on the ground a little bit more, and then stopped.

Geranno tried comforting sierra.

"I'll never look at food the same way again...." Eclipse said almost nervously.

Senka rolled her eyes and asked, "Now what do we do with the body?"

"Decomposer?" asked Geranno, pointing to the "trash" bin, which never seemed to get full.

"Aww, I wanted him to go on the surface of this sun," Senka said sadly.

"You can shove him in there, if you'd like." said Jed.

Geranno took sierra out of the room, figuring she'd rather not see this.

"Okay," She shrugged.

She picked him up with her right paw and pushed him into the bin, and everyone could hear as a bunch of bones cracked and blood began to seep through new punctures in his skin, staining Senka's flawlessly white fur.

However, as she pushed him in, it became easier to do so.

if anyone were to have looked in the bin afterwards, all they would see was dirt.

Senka wiped some of the blood off on her shirt and ignored the rest. 

"Now what's our plan?" She asked as her tail flicked around in excitement.

"Well, I'm kind've sleepy." said gluss. "i think we should get some rest."

Geranno and Sierra came back into the sleeping quarters. "Yeah. Let’s get some sleep." he said. "by the way, captain, I'd like to upload some things to the ship's mainframe, if that’s alright."

"That’s fine by me, if you are alright with me monitoring it." said the captain.

the captain started taking a walk back to the cockpit, and everyone settled down to sleep, besides Geranno and Merc. As Geranno left the room, Merc slipped in.

Geranno slowly walked into the cockpit. he saw the captain sketching something, with paper and pencils.

"Hello?" asked Geranno.

The captain was startled, and quickly tried to hide the sketchpad. "Umm, hello." said the captain. "You can connect on that spot." he pointed with a pencil at the docking port."

"by the way, what was that you were doing?" asked Geranno, as he connected the laptop. 

"I was... mapping the stars." said Jed, trying to put the sketchpad and pencils away secretly. Geranno Quickly snatched the sketchpad. "Funny, this looks a lot like a planet."

Jed sighed. "Alright, i was sketching." he admitted. "i find it more comforting than drawing on a holopad." He took the sketch back. "it’s an expensive hobby, i can tell you that." continued jed. "Paper is very rare now."

The computer started blinking with the words "Upload complete". Geranno undocked the computer and took it back the sleeping quarters with him.

He yawned as he lay down and covered up, the computer tucked under the bed.

Merc lay down on his bed. he shut his eyes, and slowly whispered to himself,

"Sleep mode On."